Various types of winches are used in conjunction with mobile lift devices to engage and support loads in a wide variety of environments. The primary purpose of many mobile lift devices is to move a load from a first position to a second position, whether by sliding or lifting the load. In particular, mobile lift devices may be used for hoisting, towing, and/or manipulating a load, such as a disabled vehicle, a container, or any other type of load. Mobile lift devices incorporating a load moving device, such as wreckers having a rotatable boom assembly, generally include devices for stabilizing the mobile lift device during operation of the load moving device. In using a winch in conjunction with a mobile lift device, it is typically useful to monitor the line pull of the winch while manipulating the load. However, in certain cases, it is difficult to determine the line pull of a winch when multiple winches are being used to manipulate the load (e.g., one winch is being used to tie-off the load moving device and another winch is being used to recover the load). It would be advantageous to develop a monitoring system for determining a line pull of a winch when the load moving device is engaging a load.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved mobile lift device having a monitoring system for monitoring the line pull of a winch. There is also a need for an improved mobile lift device having one or more sensors coupled to a monitoring system, in order to generate a signal representative of a torque generated by a motor of the winch, in order to retract the cable onto a drum of the winch. There is also a need for an improved mobile lift device having one or more sensors coupled to a monitoring system, in order to generate a signal representative of a number of layers of the cable retracted onto the drum, wherein a layer of the cable is formed by a single wrap of the cable onto the drum. There is also a need for an improved mobile lift device having a load moving device with one or more sheaves supported at the distal end of the load moving rotatable in at least two axis. There is also a need for an improved mobile lift device having a load moving device that is coupled to a rotator to permit the load moving device to rotate about at least two axis relative to the mobile lift device.
It would be desirable to provide a monitoring system for a mobile lift device that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features as may be apparent to those reviewing this disclosure. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.